Competing against...Yourself

Nike Plus has tapped into a key consumer insight that happens to affect me personally; People are more obsessed with competing against themselves than they are against other people.

Introducing Nike Plus http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHDw5uQvK5Y. A little Nike device that calibrates your iPod to your Nike + running shoe, so you can accurately track calories, distance and pace. This small but sophisticated device is not only addictive, but also motivating and inspiring – to the point where you become your own worst enemy… "I must run harder and faster than I did last time” and when you do, Tiger Woods congratulates you through your iPod, now that’s inspiring!

It all starts when you stumble into Nike store. A personal consultancy with a sales rep drives intrigue for the little device. First they convince you that the shoe you’re currently using is for amateurs. In this instance, the sales rep took the shoe brand I had been loyal to for the past ten years (Asics), and sliced it in half. This brutal demonstration drove my belief that the Nike + shoe, coupled with the iPod tracking device, was in fact the perfect training partner. Apparently I could now run faster and further than Forrest Gump ever could!

This partnership has now gone beyond any other I have ever formed. Now I can’t run without Nike +, in fact Nike + has become the reason I run. I must beat myself - Nike has created a monster out of me.

Check out their ad – “I am addicted...Measuring myself in not only meters, but kilometers and character…” Thank goodness, i’m not the only one.

Not only can you beat yourself, you can also beat others. Simply upload your run from your iPod onto the nikeplus.com website where you can compare distance, time, tracks (not tunes), and most importantly – progression. The ultimate winning quality! Everybody loves an underdog.

It got me thinking. How can the brands we work on form an integral part of a self driven emotional obsession? As well as giving people a first class ticket into an elite club?

Let’s take Nicorette. When you quit smoking you are your own worst enemy. The satisfaction you feel when you not only beat the Nicotine, but yourself, is like no other. Could we create a device that tracks Nicotine in your bloodstream? You could upload your progression online (at Nicorette.com of course) each day you do better than the last, Allen Carr congratulates you. Once you’ve quit you get an invite to an exclusive “yes, you can breathe now” club. The open lungs club, that comes complete with a white badge. When you walk past other white badge wearers in the street you give them “the nod”. Or even better, Nicorette could send quitters a pair of Nike+ running shoes! One addiction lost is another gained.

What will be next from Nike I wonder…? Nike+ surfing devices, complete with waterproof iPods? “This is Kelly Slater, congratulations you’ve just caught your fastest/longest wave… “Or probably more appropriate for Bondi surfers “Hey dude, that was an awesome wave, watch out for that shark…”